Roman - Lane Hart Page 0,10

here before I strong-armed him into taking off his clothes.

Roman

I’m leaning on the bar between Marcus and Winston waiting on a refill when one of the twins, either Cannon or Conrad, taps me on the shoulder. “Hey, prez, that woman you wanted us to put on the VIP list just showed up with her friends.” It has to be Conrad; even though he and his brother are physically identical, Cannon has a voice that booms across the entire club. His brother is more soft-spoken.

“Thanks, Conrad.” I nod to him as I turn to look around the club. It doesn’t take me long to spot Charlotte. She stalks right up to me at the bar, having apparently followed Conrad directly to me.

“Hey! You came!” I say in shock as a smile spreads across my face. I feel it start to slip as soon as the woman starts speaking.

“Why did you pretend to be a stripper?” Charlotte demands when she pokes me in the chest. Marcus and Winston nearly spray their beers before they both start coughing and choking on them. “Well? Answer me!” she demands.

Before I can figure out how to explain, she turns to the guys and says, “I have pictures. You all want to see them?”

I snatch her phone from her hand to stop her before she can present it to Marcus or Winston. My boys don’t need to ever see that much of me.

“Aw, let us see, prez,” Marcus whines, but I ignore him.

“Give me my phone back and answer my question!” Charlotte shouts over the music.

“Come on,” I tell her, grabbing her wrist to try and pull her out on the deck. Of course, she immediately resists, practically grinding her heels into the hardwood floor to root herself. “Please?” I ask through gritted teeth. “Sort of hard to talk in here!” I explain.

Her blue eyes blaze in anger, but she finally caves and lets me drag her outside.

The salty spring air blowing off the ocean is cool and refreshing, but it won’t be long before it’s hot and suffocating, the beaches overcrowded with sweating, partying, seas of humanity.

“So? Who are you?” Charlotte asks when I go over and rest my back against the rail and cross my arms over my chest.

“Roman McNamara,” I answer.

“And? Why did you come over late last night?”

Finally, I admit the truth to her. “I own the beach house you’re staying in. Well, the MC owns it, and I’m sort of responsible for any afterhours shit. A guy named Ernie lives next door and wanted me to ask you all to keep it down.”

“Oh,” she replies. “So does that mean, did you, um, know my husband by chance? He’s the one who made the annual reservations about five years ago, before he…”

“Yeah, I knew Adam for a long time,” I answer.

“How? Did you serve in the Marines too? Were you friends?”

“Yep.” I lift my t-shirt sleeve to show her the tattoo on my upper arm. “Second Battalion, Second Marines. The Warlords,” I confirm.

“Wow,” she mutters, before doing the last thing I expected. She actually reaches up and rubs her fingertips over my ink, touching me for the first time without my prodding as she outlines the sword on my insignia.

“He talked about you,” I tell her. “But he definitely underplayed how beautiful you are.”

“Is that right?” she asks, lowering her hand with a grin that says she thinks I’m putting on the moves. I suppose I am. She’s an amazing woman who deserves to be loved and adored. I hate that she’s sad and lonely even after all these years. If only she knew…

“That’s right,” I reply. Spotting a waitress nearby with a tray of shot glasses and a bottle of tequila in her off hand, I motion her to come over. “Let me get two shots,” I tell her.

“Five dollars,” she says automatically before her eyes shift from Charlotte to me and she catches her breath sharply. “Oh, sorry, Mr. McNamara, sir, I didn’t mean…”

“Easy, easy,” I interrupt her. “I’m out here on the back porch in the shadows, there’s no way you could tell it was me.” I drop a twenty on her tray and grab two of the shot glasses. “Leave the bottle with me and go get another at the bar. The twenty is for you, tell Verek or the bartender that I took your bottle.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” The waitress practically bows, bringing her tray down low before her as she backs away.

“What the hell was that?”

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